Eli Brooks: Michigan Ready For A Run, Performs 'Even Better Under Pressure'

Michigan Wolverines basketball is in the Indianapolis bubble preparing for its first-round game on Saturday against the winner of a play-in game between 16 seeds Mount St. Mary’s and Texas Southern.

While the Maize and Blue are disappointingly without senior forward Isaiah Livers for the foreseeable future (stress injury to right foot), they’re fortunate that the ankle injury senior guard Eli Brooks suffered early in the regular-season finale March 7 wasn’t as severe as initially anticipated.

He was able to return for the Wolverines’ two Big Ten Tournament games with a brace on, and performed admirably after missing a few shots early in the team’s opening game of the event.

“I wouldn’t say 100 percent, but I’d say like 90, “Brooks said of how healthy he is heading into the Big Dance when appearing on the ‘Defend The Block’ podcast with host Brian Boesch. “It doesn’t limit me to do anything, but it’s just a little bit of pain. But nothing that limits my movement, it’s just more of the pain and the swelling.”

The Big Ten Tournament didn’t end up the way Michigan would’ve liked it to, with head coach Juwan Howard and his team falling to Ohio State by one point in the semifinals, after a fifth-year senior guard Mike Smith potential game-winning three not dropping at the buzzer.

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That setback didn’t send the Wolverines ‘home,’ in a literal sense, since they stayed in Indianapolis and will remain there until they are either eliminated in the NCAA Tournament or win the national title. But it did sting, and they knew a loss can’t happen again if they want to achieve their ultimate goal of winning it all.

“We talked about it in the locker room, we can’t let this define our season because we have a bigger goal ahead of us,” Brooks said. “Let it soak in now, because this is the last time we can lose and still be playing. So that’s something we emphasized.”

Approximately 27 hours after Michigan fell to Ohio State, it was chosen as the No. 1 seed in the East Region, making it a bit easier to move on, not dwell on the past and focus on the road ahead.

“Selection Sunday, it was big for a lot of people, everybody on the team and all the staff,” Brooks revealed. “For [second-year head] Coach [Juwan] Howard, that’s the first time he had a selection show being a coach, and then having Mike, [senior guard] Chaundee [Brown] and all the freshmen having their first ones, just seeing their faces, it was pretty cool.”

It’s even a bit more special for those who have already played in such moments throughout the course of their college careers, like Brooks, Livers, fifth-year senior forward Austin Davis and more, considering there was no NCAA Tournament last year.

“I remember being a freshman, sophomore looking back at the film when we did the end of the year recap, just wanting to be out there having more of an impact,” Brooks said. “To be able to get that opportunity my senior year, yeah it adds pressure, but that’s what we want. I think we perform even better when we’re under pressure — that’s why you compete, because you want to have that.”

Brooks, who's averaging 9.1 points, three rebounds and 2.8 assists per game this season, has been on long runs in March and into April. As a freshman, the Wolverines won the Big Ten Tournament, before making it all the way to the national championship game. As a sophomore, they made the Big Ten Tournament championship game and appeared in the Sweet 16.

He said he’s going to enjoy the moments, look up at his family in the crowd, while also giving it his all and knowing any one game could be his last in a Michigan uniform (if he chooses not to use the extra year of eligibility the NCAA has handed out).

“Knowing it’s one game and you’re out — if you lose — it puts a lot of pressure on anybody,” Brooks said. “I remember being a freshman not wanting those seniors to go out with a loss, we wanted to go the whole way. We fell one game short, you just feel for the seniors.

“So I can imagine what the freshmen, sophomores and juniors feel like. But now being a senior, just having that urgency, wanting to get to that national championship again and win it all. We just have to continue what we’re doing, buy in and just play Michigan basketball.”

It all begins Saturday, and the Wolverines are hoping it ends Monday, April 5, with them cutting down nets at Lucas Oil Stadium.

• Junior forward Brandon Johns Jr. replaced Livers in the starting lineup Saturday against Ohio State. He scored seven points, all from the free throw line, and added eight points in his 12th career start. While not having Livers out there is a blow, Brooks and others are confident Johns can step in and be productive, like he has at times in his career.

“He watches a lot of extra film with the coaches, especially before that game, just trying to dial in for the scouting report,” Brooks said of Johns. “That’s just another guy that just needs confidence. To be able to talk to him, be in his ear for certain things — he’s very talented, very skilled, he can do anything — sometimes he just gets blocked by mental mistakes. So just staying in his ear, making sure he feels like he’s doing the right thing and like he has a positive impact, because he does.

“He’s a very talented person, player, very athletic, strong, physical — does a lot of things out there.”

• A fellow team captain with Livers and Davis, Brooks is trying to keep Livers as involved as possible, even though he won’t be out there on the court.

“He’s still a vocal leader on the sideline, we heard him there, so that’s good,” Brooks said.

“I definitely feel for him, because the only healthy season he really had was his freshman year. I mean, it’s just tough, especially being so close to a personal achievement [1,000 career points] and being so close to a team goal that we had, not getting the opportunity to play in the Big Ten Tournament your senior year, you just feel for a guy like that that’s been here for four years and we’ve been through it together.

“But just trying to stay positive, make sure he feels like he’s still a part of the team and he has a valuable impact with what he’s doing and just getting him healthy.”

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